Boston Trust Walden Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Boston Trust Walden Corp lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 217,240 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,530 shares during the quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned about 0.07% of Ball worth $14,753,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Ball by 196.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 80,811 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,488,000 after purchasing an additional 53,576 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its position in Ball by 62.4% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 155,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,587,000 after purchasing an additional 59,900 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Ball by 22.9% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 27,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,874,000 after purchasing an additional 5,170 shares during the last quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP grew its stake in shares of Ball by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP now owns 54,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,712,000 after purchasing an additional 7,130 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Stockton purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at about $277,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $64.03 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $19.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $65.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.14. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.49 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BALL. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.08.

About Ball

Ball Corporation supplies aluminum packaging products for the beverage, personal care, and household products industries in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. The company manufactures and sells aluminum beverage containers to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.